Forgot your password?
Until Palestine is free!
20-12-2012
More than 10,000 people participated in the march on November 29, marking the official inauguration of the World Social Forum Free Palestine (WSFFP), which took place in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, from November 28 to December 1. Some 2,500 participants from 36 countries and more than 230 organizations registered for the forum, which involved conferences around five themes and more than 120 workshops, seminars and other self-managed activities, including cultural ones. More than 250 of these participants were Palestinians, come either from occupied Palestine or as refugees in neighboring countries like Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan, in addition to a large number of refugees now living on other continents. We, of the WMW, accounted for more than 100 delegates, come from the different Brazilian states, as well as from Quebec, Palestine and South Africa.
The forum’s organizers were confronted with all types of pressure from the Israeli community, causing governments and institutions to withdraw their support for the event, which entailed the loss of many physical spaces for conducting activities, as well as cuts in resources, which prevented the presence of leaders and key figures in the Palestinian struggle. But the social movements, groups and solidarity committees heading up the organization of the forum in Brazil stood strong in their decision to ensure there would be a space for meetings and dialogue and for building concrete strategies for resistance. On several occasions, the Palestinians thanked the social movements in Brazil for having taken up this challenge.
Khitam Saafin, of UPWC, the WMW’s main group in Palestine, stressed the fact that the forum was a big step forward for social movements worldwide. “We saw that the Palestinian cause is not isolated; it is part of a global struggle for freedom and democracy around the world.” The forum was a time for encounters between Palestinians themselves, who do not have the freedom to travel within Palestine and who, after many years had passed, were able to meet together in Brazil.
Lorraine Guay, of WMW Quebec, added that “this meeting would never have been possible in Canada, due to the difficulties in obtaining visas for Palestinians ... It is very difficult to go to Palestine, and it is difficult for its people to leave. So the fact of holding this forum, where we can meet with them, talk with them, and share our analyses and life experiences, is very important. I am certain that the forum will also strengthen the political movement in Palestine.”
We, at the WMW, worked hard to help organize the forum. We understand that the Palestinian cause is at the left of the world, of all the social movements, and that we need to show our solidarity, primarily with Palestinian women, who are seeing their position in society worsening due to the war and the occupation.
“We stand beside the question of the wall of patriarchy: we want to demolish the wall, criminally imposed by Israel, but we also want to demolish the wall of patriarchy that exists in Palestine and around the world,” reinforced Sonia Coelho of the WMW Brazil.
Wilhelmina Trout, of WMW South Africa, highlighted the considerable presence of the delegation from her country: “It is also important for me, as a South African, who as part of the oppressed, having fought the apartheid regime, comes to share that experience with the women and with the comrades from Palestine, to let them know that it is not impossible to free Palestine.”
We will be on the March until we are all free, but we will not be free so long as Palestine is not free!
Our commitments for the future
The liberation of Palestine is a fundamental part of the left agenda in the world. To make this come to pass, we identified a number of vital tasks during our activity on November 30 (“Building solidarity through action”, see photo):
- Doing work within the WMW. This will involve: organizing a broad process of discussions and popular education, including confrontations and mobilizations; understanding and denouncing the interests of our governments and transnational corporations, which take advantage of the occupation of Palestine; working with women from the Palestinian diaspora in our countries; linking the Palestinian question to the context of the fight for people’s sovereignty and autonomy, strengthening the struggles that we are also engaged in, in solidarity with our sisters in Western Sahara, who are living under Moroccan occupation, and our Kurdish sisters, whose territory is divided between several countries and who suffer from repression, especially by the Turkish government;
- In our relations with other social movements and in our alliance-building processes, inserting the topic of the feminist vision and connecting critiques of capitalism and patriarchy as part of the Assembly of Social Movements and our joint actions with Friends of the Earth International and Via Campesina;
- Participating more actively in the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) campaign, from a feminist perspective: over and above cosmetics and other companies, our main target could be the arms industry, which would allow us to establish ties between our action areas of demilitarization and violence against women. For example, we know that the heavy circulation of “light” or “small” arms results in more deaths of women in situations of domestic violence;
- Building and expanding on social movements’ communications tools and on the convergence between these movements, to topple the mainstream media circus, which obscures the Israeli occupation of Palestine;
- To evaluate the possibility of organising solidarity missions to Palestine, which was one of the countries suggested for the closing ceremony of the Third International Action in 2010.
*November 29 activity, “The resistance struggle of Palestinian women,” jointly organized by the WMW, the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF), the Brazilian Women’s Union (UBM) and the Confederation of Brazilian Women (CMB), in addition to CUT, MST/Via Campesina, KAIROS and more
November 29, WSF Free Palestine Opening march, on the International Day of Solidarity to Palestine. Click to watch video: http://coletivocatarse.com.br/home/?p=3012
*Assembly of Social Movements, December 1: reading and confirming our approval of the reference document that guided the creation of WSFFP (click here to read the text).
*Photo gallery of the WMW at WSFFP: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marchamulheres/
*Video on the November 29 activity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hefij_UsUEk
The forum’s organizers were confronted with all types of pressure from the Israeli community, causing governments and institutions to withdraw their support for the event, which entailed the loss of many physical spaces for conducting activities, as well as cuts in resources, which prevented the presence of leaders and key figures in the Palestinian struggle. But the social movements, groups and solidarity committees heading up the organization of the forum in Brazil stood strong in their decision to ensure there would be a space for meetings and dialogue and for building concrete strategies for resistance. On several occasions, the Palestinians thanked the social movements in Brazil for having taken up this challenge.
Khitam Saafin, of UPWC, the WMW’s main group in Palestine, stressed the fact that the forum was a big step forward for social movements worldwide. “We saw that the Palestinian cause is not isolated; it is part of a global struggle for freedom and democracy around the world.” The forum was a time for encounters between Palestinians themselves, who do not have the freedom to travel within Palestine and who, after many years had passed, were able to meet together in Brazil.
Lorraine Guay, of WMW Quebec, added that “this meeting would never have been possible in Canada, due to the difficulties in obtaining visas for Palestinians ... It is very difficult to go to Palestine, and it is difficult for its people to leave. So the fact of holding this forum, where we can meet with them, talk with them, and share our analyses and life experiences, is very important. I am certain that the forum will also strengthen the political movement in Palestine.”
We, at the WMW, worked hard to help organize the forum. We understand that the Palestinian cause is at the left of the world, of all the social movements, and that we need to show our solidarity, primarily with Palestinian women, who are seeing their position in society worsening due to the war and the occupation.
“We stand beside the question of the wall of patriarchy: we want to demolish the wall, criminally imposed by Israel, but we also want to demolish the wall of patriarchy that exists in Palestine and around the world,” reinforced Sonia Coelho of the WMW Brazil.
Wilhelmina Trout, of WMW South Africa, highlighted the considerable presence of the delegation from her country: “It is also important for me, as a South African, who as part of the oppressed, having fought the apartheid regime, comes to share that experience with the women and with the comrades from Palestine, to let them know that it is not impossible to free Palestine.”
We will be on the March until we are all free, but we will not be free so long as Palestine is not free!
Our commitments for the future
The liberation of Palestine is a fundamental part of the left agenda in the world. To make this come to pass, we identified a number of vital tasks during our activity on November 30 (“Building solidarity through action”, see photo):
- Doing work within the WMW. This will involve: organizing a broad process of discussions and popular education, including confrontations and mobilizations; understanding and denouncing the interests of our governments and transnational corporations, which take advantage of the occupation of Palestine; working with women from the Palestinian diaspora in our countries; linking the Palestinian question to the context of the fight for people’s sovereignty and autonomy, strengthening the struggles that we are also engaged in, in solidarity with our sisters in Western Sahara, who are living under Moroccan occupation, and our Kurdish sisters, whose territory is divided between several countries and who suffer from repression, especially by the Turkish government;
- In our relations with other social movements and in our alliance-building processes, inserting the topic of the feminist vision and connecting critiques of capitalism and patriarchy as part of the Assembly of Social Movements and our joint actions with Friends of the Earth International and Via Campesina;
- Participating more actively in the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) campaign, from a feminist perspective: over and above cosmetics and other companies, our main target could be the arms industry, which would allow us to establish ties between our action areas of demilitarization and violence against women. For example, we know that the heavy circulation of “light” or “small” arms results in more deaths of women in situations of domestic violence;
- Building and expanding on social movements’ communications tools and on the convergence between these movements, to topple the mainstream media circus, which obscures the Israeli occupation of Palestine;
- To evaluate the possibility of organising solidarity missions to Palestine, which was one of the countries suggested for the closing ceremony of the Third International Action in 2010.
*November 29 activity, “The resistance struggle of Palestinian women,” jointly organized by the WMW, the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF), the Brazilian Women’s Union (UBM) and the Confederation of Brazilian Women (CMB), in addition to CUT, MST/Via Campesina, KAIROS and more
November 29, WSF Free Palestine Opening march, on the International Day of Solidarity to Palestine. Click to watch video: http://coletivocatarse.com.br/home/?p=3012
*Assembly of Social Movements, December 1: reading and confirming our approval of the reference document that guided the creation of WSFFP (click here to read the text).
*Photo gallery of the WMW at WSFFP: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marchamulheres/
*Video on the November 29 activity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hefij_UsUEk
